Teachers' implementation of the coaching role : do teachers' ownership, sensemaking, and agency make a difference?

The aim of this study was to explore whether teachers’ positioning towards an innovation is related to their implementation of it. Positioning was reflected in terms of teachers’ ownership, sensemaking, and agency. The innovation that was of central focus in this study pertained to the changing role of teachers towards a more coaching role in the classroom. Teachers’ implementation of the coaching role was examined through student perceptions. The data were collected by means of a questionnaire, completed by 253 of the students of 10 teachers. The findings showed that these teachers appeared to be implementing their coaching role to a reasonably strong degree. Moreover, a relationship was identified between the extent to which this role was implemented and teachers’ feelings of ownership, their processes of sensemaking, and their experiences of agency. The results therefore suggest that ownership, sensemaking, and agency do make a difference in the implementation of an educational innovation.